The present invention provides an improvement in providing rich brown aqueous colors for foodstuffs having reddish hues. A richer brown color is a very desirable color for foodstuffs because such colors are particularly appealing for grain based foods.
While certain synthetic approved chemical colorants are permitted for use in food products, it would be desirable to have an "all natural" food colorant.
Annatto is one of the most widely used of natural food colorants and provides a yellow orange hue. The coloring matter of annatto consists of carotenoid pigments found on the surface of seeds of the bixa orellana tree which is widely found throughout the tropics. Bixin is the major component of annatto color, comprising more than 80% of the pigment in the seed coating but other pigments have also been identified including cis-norbixin, trans-norbixin and others.
Bixin is completely soluble in fats and oils up to 0.1% by weight while norbixin has a much lower solubility in oil but good solubility in aqueous solution as the corresponding sodium or potassium salt. As a result, for coloring fat or oil foods, annatto comprising high quantities of bixin is employed. However, for aqueous based annatto, the solution is typically provided at an alkaline pH above 13 and comprises substantial amounts of the norbixin.
While annatto color alone is popular for use in many food products, it would be desirable to provide a rich brown with a red hue or a brown with yellow tint colorant especially for cereal based foodstuffs such as RTE cereals. To provide a rich brown colorant employing annatto as the base color constituent, it is necessary to add a second natural colorant to modify the annatto color to add a brown hue.
Caramel is a brown natural colorant. Caramel coloring is defined as the "amorphous, dark brown material resulting from the carefully controlled heat treatment of food grade carbohydrates." Food grade acids, alkalis, and salts may be employed to assist caramelization. Detailed information on caramel coloring can be found in the color additives regulations promulgated under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, published in Part 8, Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Caramel coloring is generally provided as an aqueous solution having a highly acidic pH of about 3.
When substantially similar amounts of the acidic caramel color is admixed with the highly alkaline annatto color to provide a golden brown water based colorant, the resultant aqueous mixture typically has a pH of about 6.6 to 6.9. However, over time, this blend tends to result in annatto precipitation.
Recently, cooked cereal based food products such as RTE cereals and snack products have been provided characterized by line features having a high degree of line resolution (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,639,485, issued Jun. 17, 1997 to Weinstein et al). Such line color cereal products are prepared by coextruding a cooked cereal dough with minute quantities of a water-based colorant through a die insert to form a dough flow having in cross section a complex pattern. The die insert has a plurality of minute diameter discharge ports for the aqueous colorant solution. The dough having the complex color pattern is then necked down through a small acutely angled passageway to maintain the complex pattern even though the cross sectional diameter of the dough is reduced. The dough is then extruded such as under direct expansion conditions and sectioned into individual pieces to form, for example, puffed individual pieces exhibiting a complex pattern. The pieces are suitable for use as puffed RTE cereals or cereal based snacks (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. D 368,791 issued Aug. 8, 1996 to Laughlin entitled "Food Product" which discloses a design reminiscent of a basketball).
When the annatto-caramel aqueous blend is used to provide coloring for RTE cereals (see for example U.S. Ser. No. 08/241,321, filed May 11, 1994) in apparatus having very small colorant discharge ports, the annatto precipitate can lead to die plugging or fouling, and inconsistent product quality in terms of consistency of coloration. Cleaning the die can result in substantial loss of production on the order of about 20 to 30% of production capacity. These problems are aggravated when the annatto-caramel golden brown colorant has been preblended, e.g., by a color supplier and stored for extended periods prior to use as is common in the commercial manufacture of foodstuffs such as RTE cereals typically consumed with cold milk or snacks.
To reduce the problem of fouling, one approach is simply to dilute the annatto-caramel colorant blend with water and use more of the dilute aqueous colorant. While helpful in reducing the severity of the plugging problem, the fouling problem continues to require frequent cleaning of fouled dies.
In another approach, the annatto-caramel blend can be formulated with so-called acid stable annatto. An acid stable annatto includes gelatin and emulsifiers to suspend the annatto precipitate that is formed. Acid stable annatto is used widely, especially in the dairy industry for cheese coloring.
Use of acid stable annatto can advantageously reduce the severity of the plugging problem even more than dilution. Unfortunately, using acid stable annatto has two serious disadvantages. One significant disadvantage is the higher cost of acid stable annatto. More significantly, however, using acid stable annatto creates problems in the production of RTE cereals. Using acid stable annatto in an annatto-caramel color blend in the extruder as described above for RTE cereal or snack shaped product production causes a sputtering effect on the cooked cereal dough extrudate. This sputtering effect can result in undesirable deformation of the desired shaped product. Also, the sputtering can result in the colorant becoming air borne resulting in staining both equipment and operating personnel. Moreover, the shaped pieces exhibit a tendency to both deform and to stick to one another. These operational problems render the use of acid stable annatto impractical irrespective of the cost penalty of using acid stable annatto.
In view of the difficulties in providing annatto-caramel colorant, there is a continuing need for new and improved annatto based colorants that can be used in the commercial manufacture of foodstuffs, especially cereal based foods such as RTE cereals and snacks.
There is further need for annatto-caramel colorants that do not require the use of gelatin.
Still another objective is to provide colorants that are "all-natural."
Another objective is to provide a brown colorant for an RTE cereal that does not bleed into the milk.
Still another objective is to provide a low cost annatto-caramel colorant.
Surprisingly, the above problems can be overcome, the above objectives obtained and improved annatto-caramel colorants provided, that when used in the commercial manufacture of RTE cereals and snacks, greatly minimize the severity of die fouling. Moreover, employment of the novel improved annatto-caramel colorants herein minimize problems of sputtering that can result in product deformation and clumping.
The improved annatto-caramel aqueous colorants importantly are characterized by a specific alkaline pH range obtained such as by addition of potassium hydroxide. Also, the colorants are degassed of evolved ammonia gas to provide an aqueous colorant having an ammonia content of less than 0.05%. The annatto-caramel colorant can be preblended and exhibit up to three months shelf life when stored at refrigerated conditions.